Professing Feminism: Cautionary Tales From Inside The Strange World Of Women's Studies - Hardcover

Patai, Daphne

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0465098215 ISBN 13: 9780465098217

Publisher: Basic Books, 1994

Synopsis

Feminists have often called Women's Studies "the academic arm of the women's movement." With over 600 Women's Studies programs in existence throughout the United States, academic feminism is now a strong presence on college campuses - and beyond. But, as Daphne Patai and Noretta Koertge charge in this hard-hitting book, the attempt to make Women's Studies serve a political agenda has led to deeply problematic results: dubious scholarship, pedagogical practices that resemble indoctrination more than education, and the alienation of countless potential supporters.
The authors interviewed dozens of women - professors, students, and staffers - who, like themselves, have invested much time and effort in Women's Studies. These women speak eloquently of their frustration and even despair over the problems and conflicts they experienced in programs where a feminist agenda has been relentlessly pursued. Faced with intolerance and "ideological policing" on the part of both activist colleagues and true-believer students, some of these women withdrew altogether; others, while maintaining their formal association with Women's Studies, took inner flight. All are troubled and alarmed about the future of feminism in the academy.
To reveal the root causes of these tensions and animosities, Patai and Koertge present an incisive analysis of the self-defeating ideological games feminists play in colleges and universities, among them IDPOL (identity politics), WORDMAGIC, TOTAL REJ, and BIODENIAL, an extreme form of social constructionism. The authors call on feminists in the academy to abandon their self-destructive ways if they are to regain the positive vision that attracted so many people to feminism in the first place.

About this title

About the Author:

Daphne Patai is Professor of Women's Studies and of Brazilian Literature and Adjunct Professor of Comparative Literature at the University of Massachusetts, Amherst.

From Publishers Weekly:

This unsparing account of the troubles that beset women's studies programs should incite vociferous debate. Drawing on interviews with professors and students, Patai, a professor of Spanish and Portuguese at the University of Massachusetts, and Koertge, a professor of the history and philosophy of science at Indiana University, contend that the greatest threat to the field comes from within. Rigidly doctrinaire politics, they claim, overshadow education: activism rather than scholarly accomplishment often prevails in hiring and tenure decisions, and "ideological policing" in the classroom precludes tolerant appraisal of alternative points of view. The academic deficiencies that result, the authors assert, favor the demagogue over the student. Such problems ironically testify to the enduring vitality of feminism, yet, they conclude, only a more rigorous focus on free inquiry and scholarly merit will perpetuate that vitality in the academy.
Copyright 1994 Reed Business Information, Inc.

About this edition

• Publisher: Basic Books
• Publication date: 1994
• ISBN 10: 0465098215
• ISBN 13: 9780465098217
• Binding: Hardcover
• Edition number: 1
• Number of pages: 256